Ski

Snowing here

just a pic of the groms at the bottom of CBall's big headwall, today...

The NF was amazing this weekend. I'm exhausted. There were never more than 25 people (other than wherever the race team was) and the steeps were like it never rained this week. You're one hard mo fo to please

Did you ski WL, Boomer, or Smoke today? They were perfect groomed corduroy from edge to edge

From Skiracing.com: Wengen: Miller matches Mahre win mark Sunday, 13 January 2008 Dust off that record book. Bode Miller has won the Lauberhorn downhill in no uncertain fashion and caught Phil Mahre's 25 year old U.S. win record with his 27th win. Miller scorched the longest downhill on the World Cup circuit overpowering the field. Only Swiss veteran Didier Cuche, in his ninth official World Cup trip down the famed course could come within a full second of Miller's time of 2:30.40. Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis was third, one and a third seconds back and downhill standings leader Michael Walchhofer was fourth, giving up the standings lead. The win marked the third straight year Americans have claimed Switzerland's premier downhill. Miller also won last season and Daron Rahlves in 2006. "It was extremely fun," said Miller. "It didn't feel that good in terms of the quality of the skiing but I was very aggressive. I kept really pushing forward the whole time. There was no braking." Miller trailed Osborne-Paradis at the first split and failed to match Cuche's speed under the Water Station tunnel. But the American pulled away on the long gliding sections in the second half of the course. After clearing the jump into the finish he looked at his time and pumped his fist. "I take a little bit more of a direct line," he said. "I just cut off a lot of distance, especially when the speeds are a little slower." Miller also said finishing third Friday in the super combined, which includes a shortened downhill and one run of slalom, helped him sort out some speed sections. "I learned that there were curves I couldn't ski full speed. I took them a bit slower today and I had a tighter line." He added, "If you ski crappy the wins don't mean that much. Today, I"m very proud of the way I skied. I fought hard." Snows overnight dumped a meter of snow on the upper reaches of the course and although course workers did a fantastic job of clearing down to the ice underneath, some sections were notably slower. "It was amazingly beautiful," said U.S. Head Coach Phil McNichol. "just a killer day. They got way more snow than was forecasted. They cleared it all off and the track was pretty damn good." The coach said Miller has just become comfortable at Wengen and skied that way. "He tore up the SG turns after the tunnel, really picked up a bunch of heat. The finish turns can be quite daunting and he just nailed them. Wengen has really turned into venue he's really comfortable with." Behind Osborne-Paradis at the first checkpoint, Miller blew past the Canadian in the second section. "I screwed up just before the Minsch-Kante," Osborne-Paradis said, "and figured I had nothing to lose, so I just pinned it the rest of the way. In the S, he said, "I caught my (boot) buckle a little bit on the (safety) bag. I wanted to take that line and was wondering if I could get away with it. It was line I hadn't tried all week, but I had screwed up Canadian corner and so and was a little slower

I don't think there were any snowmaking hours last night---they just had so much base from the cold snap that they pushed it up the connectors/run-ins. As far as Boomer and WL goes, it's as if the bad weather never happened. And the snow on Boomer and WL was clean and white, which usually indicates it's groomed from a deep base. Switch and Highball are dead---maybe 60% covered. The big park has plenty of coverage, while Mainline is open but has some sketchy spots. Whistler is the only upper mountain, non-park slope in fair/good shape. Also, they have another 40 new guns to go with the 193 from last season. They just need some cold weather...

Anyone spending time on the NF today got a real surprise: snow. Lots of snow. Boomer and WL had been closed only because the connectors had bare spots. WL was fantastic in the morning, with edge to edge coverage and groomed. Boomer also rocked, but you had to be careful with your speed toward the bottom of the headwall where some bumps were launching some people. Cannonball was okay---no bad spots, and Smoke was pretty much taken over by the race team. It was cool that the former US Ski Teamer, Holly Flanders, spent most of the morning with the devo team. Crowds? Sno Mountain was pretty much our private ski hill today. People were apparently scared off by the weather last week. I think there were more ski patrollers cruising around than paying customers. Awesome mo fo day...

Ty was born 7/2/00...the day after. Up here, it's the teachers who live like Wall Street mavericks, btw...

One other point that I think is interesting: Bode was the oldest person to finish today's race...

And I understand where you're coming from. But DH's meaningless and nasty first response aside, Larry made what I consider a valid point, comparing rooting for the Yankees and rooting against Bode. I can get past him calling me a fucking this and a fucking that, and answer his supposition. Aside from the language and personal attacks, I have to totally disagree with any need for limiting the discussion of Bode, good or bad.

I'll help you move, Poc! Great TR!

Hahaha...you're definitely a good guy ski911...doesn't mean much coming from me, I know, but you get props for taking it head on. Did we see you skiing at Sno tonight?

Okay. So some topics don't interest you. That's fine. But if you noticed, I posted a thread regarding the most influential ski racer of our time, mocking how he just crashed out of back to back races. A guy who is coming into this season leaving the national team and dealing with fallout of egging on a family member who murdered a cop. Isn't that noteworthy? Does it need to be done in a different style? Further, Bode won a downhill training run by an unheard of 2 seconds---on the second most famous track. It's a huge weekend in the history of ski racing... Bitching about who has a better terrain park after a week of crappy weather is more noteworthy? On some Euro MB's, there are thousands of people arguing about Bode...but here it's not welcome?

Ty and I headed over for a few runs just to check things out and work on something her coach suggested. We were only on the upper mountain, so I can't speak about the NF, although the area around the Phoebe is fine and the connector down to Iron Horse had good coverage. Switch is 30% bare, as is Highball---both closed until snowmaking weather.. But Mainline's jumps were groomed out and the coverage was pretty good, with just a couple of spots to watch out for. The area around the lodge was amazingly well covered. Whistler is in good shape, but it's so dark that you had to be careful of what was a shadow and what may or may not have been dirt. I think it was all snow. The park rats are livin' large...Spike has huge jumps and lots of rails are set. It has side to side coverage and we didn't find a single bare spot. Definitely a product of the new guns. Oh, and they replaced the old stairs with something that looks like scaffolding after a wind storm. Great night of skiing!

No, Rob. Not in a million years would I want his talent if it meant I had a hand in murdering someone. I guess you and I are more different than I thought. Yes and no. It's another World Cup season to talk about. I was more than happy to discuss his 3rd in the Super Combined today....and what went wrong for him.

Go root for a hillbilly, cop murdering clan.

Yeah, I'm sure you're right.

Classic example of it being the skier not the resort, IMO. Rob, if you skied like Doug, you'd have a better appreciation of JH. Not a total slam, since not a lot of people ski like Doug and JH's best assets are lost on them.

1. Well, I'm smarter than you, so where does that leave you? 2. Tomba faked his party rep. Read his book. Man, you're like 10 years behind the news. 3. I hate what steroids has done to baseball. Maybe you missed my rant about Bonds? I said it destroyed the most important records in baseball. What's your point? I think players who took HGH after they were banned by MLB should be punished. I think every Yankee that violated league rules should suffer the same punishment as every other player around MLB. 4. Baseball players that cheated are horrible role models. 5. Bode Miller is a horrible role model. 6. I think it's pathetic when an athlete refuses help with his alcoholism and it costs him Olympic medals. Left field? 7. Fuck off. You're just being a troll with a personal attack. BTW, 1st Grade, go take your meds. Something is seriously wrong that you get so nuts over Bode. Every bad thing people say about him was invited by his actions and words. So what if I don't like him? Why do you care? Would you really tell your kid to call his/her boss an asshole and not expect repercussions?

Hospital. He was caught out in the sun.

No.

There's no way CB is closing in an hour. It has to be some crazy hoax. Doug must have hacked their site.

I was just suggesting it was a simple answer. As kids, when you jumped backwards, you didn't use a word like 'reverse'...and it just carried into skiing.

You aren't very bright, are you 1st Grade? Listen: it isn't just Yankee players on steroids. Every Major League Baseball team has suspected and admitted steroid users. Is Bonds a Yankee? Was Mark Mcgwire a Yankee? Is Sammy Sosa a Yankee? So, all baseball teams are involved in the scandal, while Bode is the only asshole who blows his Olympic experience by getting trashed. Next?